SECRET
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Tuesday. 22nd July, 1941 .

B.B.C. AUTUMN TALKS PLANS

(1) There has been a great deal of discussion at various levels, from the Minister of Information and the Minister without Portfolio downwards, about the B.B.C.’s Autumn talks' plans. The object of this note is to state briefly the present planning position and to ask for certain Government decisions.

(2) A proposal for a series of talks in the autumn, discussing all sides of reconstruction - the whole ‘Brave New World’ business, including peace aims - with the controversial implications inevitably involved, is held up, pending ministerial sanction. If such a series were undertaken it would have to be at the wish of the Government and in the knowledge that either the Minister would have to face angry criticism, or else the programmes would have to be bowdlerised into artificiality and boredom. The Minister told me verbally and provisionally on July 18th that for the autumn the series dealt with in (3) below will be adequate.

MINSTRY OF INFORMATION DECISION IS WANTED ON -

confirmation of this provisional ruling.

(The Minister's statement in the House (Hansard 8th April 1941 cols. 1529-30 must be considered in this context.)

(3) A series of talks on ‘Physical Reconstruction’, i.e. limited to matters within the competence of the Ministry of Works and Building is projected for the October-December period. This is defined as follows:

“Beginning with a discussion on the house needed to replace the one that Jerry knocked down, the series will lead on to discussions by expert witnesses on housing, town planning, agricultural planning, and the location of industry, which determines the place of livelihood of the people, and is therefore a first consideration. Transport and the Region will be dealt with in detail, and space must be found for a discussion on Regional Planning. London, however, will be treated separately as the National Capital. In the final stages of the course, talks on land utilisation and finance will be arranged, and the proposal for a National Planning Authority will be examined.”

This tentative plan has been approved by Mr. Vincent of the Ministry of Works and Buildings. No speakers have been approached.

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION DECISIONS ARE WANTED ON -

(a) the suitability of this framework;

(b) the limits of freedom within the framework to be given the B.B.C. in the choice of speakers, including the ‘Chairman’, and on the passing of each script. It is suggested that the most practical working arrangement will be for the main speakers to be submitted to the Minister or to Executive Board, and that discretion be allowed over the less important speakers. The scripts will all come to me in the ordinary course. Should I only refer them if I am doubtful, or does anyone at the Ministry (and if so, who?) wish also to see them?

(4) A further project for three or four talks also to be given in the autumn has been discussed with Mr. Greenwood, Mrs. Hamilton and others, in and out of the M.O.I. No action has been taken. The proposal is that simple men and women ‘in the street’, shall be brought to the microphone to say from their past experience what they would like the postwar future to bring them. This follows a broadcasting practice which has often proved successful. Selected men and women of contrasted ages and occupations would be found in e.g. the East End of London and Lancashire, and their stories put into a natural, suitable form, with the help of a B.B.C. producer. If the Committee wishes, a sample can be ‘recorded’ without any commitment for actual broadcasting. Some of the difficulties given in (2) would also have to be faced in this series, No typical English people could be groomed by the B.B.C. out of gruelling.

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION DECISIONS ARE WANTED ON -

(a) suitability of these projected three or four talks;

(b) if the answer to (a) is favourable, details as under 3(b) above.

A.P. RYAN.

21st July, 1941.